Minor league rosters revealed
JUPITER, Fla. — The Cardinals’ minor-league camp begin games today, facing the Florida affiliates from across campus. And that means the first good look for us of first-round pick Peter Kozma and a peek at the layout of the organization’s minor-league rosters.
Cardinals official John Vuch said a goal this spring was to assign players to the team they probably will open with. That doesn’t necessarily mean the starting lineups for today’s games are representative, but the overall rosters do offer an idea of the plans for certain prospects (i.e., Bryan Anderson headed to Double-A Springfield.)
The lineups just passed out here to the media (all pitchers are not listed, just the ones scheduled to go today):
MEMPHIS (AAA)
- Reid Gorecki, CF
- Jose Martinez, SS
- David Freese, 3B
- Josh Phelps, 1B
- Brian Barden, DH
- Cody Haerther, RF
- Amaury Marti, LF
- Gabe Johnson, C
- Mike McCoy, 2B
Bench: Rico Washington, Matt Pagnozzi, Nick Stavinoha. Pitchers: Mitchell Boggs, Joe Rogers, Casey Rauschenberger, Dennis Dove, Ron Flores.
SPRINGFIELD (AA)
- Jon Jay, LF
- Dan Nelson, 2B
- A. J. Van Slyke, 1B
- Chris Grossman, C
- Mark Shorey, DH
- Luke Gorsett, RF
- Casey Rowlett, 3B
- Juan Lucena, SS
- Shane Robinson, CF
Bench: Allen Craig, Mark Hamilton, Bryan Anderson, Brandon Yarbrough, Tyler Greene, Ian Church. Pitchers: Adam Daniels, Nick Webber, Mark Worrell, Kris Honel, and Missouri State alum Bob Zimmermann.
PALM BEACH (HIGH-A)
- Tyler Henley, CF
- Brandon Johnson, 2B
- Isa Garcia, 3B
- Christian Reyes, 1B
- Scott Thomas, C
- Jose Ramirez, LF
- Steven Hill, DH
- Oliver Marmol, SS
- Tommy Pham, RF
Bench: James Rapoport, Daryl Jones, Daniel Descalso, Brandon Buckman, Arnoldi Cruz, Donovan Solano, Nathan Southard, Jose Salazar, Nick Derba, Jared Schweitzer, Jon Edwards. Pitchers: Fernando Salas, Brian Broderick, Jason Cairns, Marco Gonzalez, Armando Carrasco.
QUAD CITIES 1 (LOW-A)
- D’Marcus Ingram, CF
- Pete Kozma, SS
- Roberto Marquez, LF
- Carlos Pupo, 1B
- Ryde Rodriguez, DH
- Osvaldo Morales, 3B
- Brian Cartie, DH
- Justin Roberson, RF
- Casey Mulligan, C
- Mike Folli, 2B
Bench: Andrew Brown, Adron Chambers, Beau Riportella, Ivan Castro, Dave Carpenter, Luis de la Cruz, Paul Vazquez, Jose Garcia, Travis Mitchell. Pitchers: Wayne Daman, Julio Sanchez, Logan Collier, David Bilardello, Marcus Markray.
QUAD CITIES 2 (LOW-A)
- Collin Fanning, CF
- Ivan Bellazetin, 2B
- Domnit Bolivar, SS
- Nicholas Vera, 3B
- Charles Pelt, 1B
- Matthew Arburr, DH
- Charlie Kingrey, OF
- Joey Hage, RF
- Roberto Espinoza, C
- Gerard Haran, DH
Bench: Ross Oeder, Robert Sanzillo, and the Hungarian catcher De’nes Simonyi. Pitchers: Dylan Gonzalez, Jose Mateo, Ray Silva, David Riddle.
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And, yes, with minor-league games starting today that means the Vuch Report will make its much-anticipated return to Bird Land.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
dg,
That Memphis infield looks pretty good. Martinez/Barden ss/2b with Freese at 3rd and Phelps at 1b. That will be a very good infield. With Colby, Amaury and Haerther in the outfield, I think this team will win some games. Good for the Memphis fans.
Frankly the position players make sense but I am much more interested in how all the Cards talented young pitchers shake out. I imagine Boggs, Parisi, McClellan = AAA, Ottavino, Mortensen, Herron, Garcia = AA (what a rotation!).
Something tells me Craig won’t be sitting on the bench so that Rowlett can play 3rd base… in fact, I think that whole AA bench is better than the starting lineup. Same with high-A.
Sleepy,
These are not “opening day” lineups in any sense. It’s standard for players who are fighting for jobs to get lots of early playing time to sort themselves out and then the players earmarked for the teams slide in to get ready for the season. It does however show how the Freese/Craig third base question will break … but we already had a feel for that with the NRIs.
dg
Sounds like Sleepy already asked my serious question, whether this meant Greene was being shifted to a utility role… That’d be a shame.
Unserious question: Is this yet another name change for Cory Meachem?
Thanks for passing on these partial rosters, Derrick.
In Early spring training they usually play guys who are on th Bubble more than the starters because they need to release players
Great job as always, Mr. Goold. I love seeing Beau Riportella, a personal favourite of mine, being pushed rather aggressively to QC in his first full season out of high school. Very exciting.
Derrick,
Where is Chris Gibson (Bob’s son) this year? Any word on how he’s developing? Just curious. His dad was such a gifted athlete that he probably could have played almost any position, so it’s interesting to keep track of the son. Thanks!